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Legal Issues

Ann Bartow has written an intersting Paper that looks at how technology and legal issues are affecting libraries. It\'s a great paper that covers the past, present and future of the legal issues that surround libraries.

As Fair Use is slowly taken away from us using laws like the DMCA, Copyright Term Extension Act, and who knows that else, I really think this is the kind of thing we need to be worried about. Where is the passion and emotion I see in the filtering issue when it comes to legal issues?

NY Times is running a Story that James Nimmo sent in on the law and book records.

They say searches or subpoenas have been sought for Borders bookstores in both Massachusetts and Kansas, at the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver and Amazon.com.

\"What we\'re afraid of is that it is a bad idea that is getting increasing publicity and occurring to more and more police — to short-circuit the investigative process and go straight to a bookstore.\"

In an effort to assuage the legal concerns of local officials who want to keep pornography away from kids in public libraries, a New York City-based public interest legal group is offering its services for free to libraries that want to install anti-pornography Internet filtering systems on public computer terminals. [more...] from CNS News.

\"A 40-year-old man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of viewing child pornography on a computer at the Northeast public library in Minneapolis.

It was the first time anybody had been arrested at a Minneapolis public library for looking at such images, said Mary Lawson, library system director. A security guard called police after he saw the man viewing Web site pictures of naked and clothed children between the ages of 4 and 12.\"[more...] from the Star-Tribune.

John W. Berry, President-elect of the American
Library Association writes:
\"here are my remarks to the press in Philadelphia on
Tuesday; The events in both New York City and Philadelphia were well
attended by print, radio and tv media. A counter press conference by
CIPA proponents took place yesterday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
See various coverage at these sites:\"

Someone writes \"The Better Business Bureau is demanding that a Web publisher remove unauthorized hyperlinks to the BBB Web site, citing consumer confusion over affiliation between the two organizations and possible trademark infringement. Read the story at:The NY Times \"

From the story:

\"If there was a deception, there could be legal grounds\" for a lawsuit, she said. \"Trademarks can\'t be used to imply sponsorship, endorsement or affiliation.\"

The American Civil Liberties Union has backed a ruling by a California court that states, that libraries cannot be forced to restrict Internet use by parents of minors. According to the state appeals court, this type of restriction is \"untenable under state and federal law.\" [more...]

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday narrowly absolved America Online in a child pornography case, ruling 4-3 that the Internet giant should not be held responsible for the illicit activities of its customers. [more...] from NewsBytes.

Gary
Price sent word of This Story from The Standard on twin lawsuits
filed on March 20.
Filed in Philly, against The Children\'s Internet
Protection Act [CIPA], by the ALA and
the ACLU, the
groups hope to overturn the law.